Explore 101 – New travel app brings European cities to life with celebrity voices

I don’t know about you but I love visiting new cities and love seeing it through a ‘local’s’ eyes! To be honest it was part of the reason I started this site, along with Sydney Social 101 and Manchester Social 101. I was so excited when I heard about a new app that gives users a glimpse into new city’s hidden gems!

Cities Talking is the new way to discover your favourite cities, for less. Whether you’re planning a mini-break with your partner, looking for a way to entertain the kids in the holidays or struggling for fun things to do at the weekend on a budget, this new travel app has got it sorted.

Showcasing the very best of Europe’s city culture, Cities Talking – which has been dubbed the “anti-tour guide” – has been designed to offer a solution to expensive, uninformative city tours, with the help of some famous voices.

At just £2.99 per walk, the app allows you to explore cities on your own schedule, while having a lot of fun along the way. Rather than regurgitating the same mundane facts that many tour guides rely on, the app uses an interactive GPS which targets your location and provides compelling facts designed to inspire, educate, amuse and entertain – whether it’s Christopher Biggins guiding you around the regal streets of London or comedian Gordon Kelly, taking you on a magical, medieval tour of Edinburgh – it’s the unique and novel way to unearth the secrets of our best loved cities.

Julie-Anne Uggla, founder of Cities Talking, commented: “In Venice me and my family paid a premium for an excruciating tour of the city – it was so busy we couldn’t hear the tour guide speak, what we did hear was completely uninspiring and we couldn’t even stop for a water break in the baking heat. At that point I thought surely there’s a cheaper, more exciting way to explore a city than this – which is when Cities Talking was born!”.

The best thing about Cities Talking is you can pause, rewind or fast forward the tour, depending on your interests and if you mishear something, not a problem, just rewind to listen again – there’s no missing out because you’re at the back of the group, like existing walking tours.

Two separate functions also allow you to tailor your walks to your personal tastes; the Inspire function lets you select points of interest, such as churches, museums, restaurants or places to visit on a rainy day, for example; the Plan function then takes it one step further, allowing you to pick your favourite locations, which are then mapped out for you to enjoy.

Walks are currently available for 10 European Cities, including: London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Amsterdam, Budapest, Florence, Paris, Venice, Bruges and Prague.